Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c23.14

v1.c23.14

The rise of the Medo-Persian kingdom heralded Persia’s early commerce with India. We enter into the recorded political history beginning with sixth century BC, towards the later half of which Cyrus the great made a partially successful onslaught on India. (Rapson, 1921: 294-300) The empire of Darius (522-486 BC) extended from the borderline of Greece to the borderline of India. Xerexes (486-65 BC) attacked Greece. Herodotus, the Greek historian of this period described some Indian satraps paying a tribute of three hundered and sixty talents of gold dust (over a million pounds sterling) to the Persian emperor. (Herodotus, III, 94) For the invasion of Greece, the Persian army was assisted by the Indians carrying cane bows and arrows of cane, tipped with iron. This early reference to the Indian gold and iron merit further comments.